It’s official: Elon Musk is on track to become the world’s first trillionaire.
Tesla shareholders approved a new executive pay package Thursday afternoon that would give Musk nearly $1 trillion in stock over the next decade, a record-shattering deal for the world’s richest man.
The total award depends on whether Musk can meet ambitious performance targets for the struggling electric-vehicle company, including growing Tesla’s market cap to $8.5 trillion—a more than 500% increase from today’s valuation. The goals also include delivery of 20 million Tesla vehicles and 1 million bots in addition to 1 million robotaxis in commercial operation.
“While we believe Elon is the only person capable of leading Tesla at this critical inflection point, changing the world is neither an overnight process nor the work of a single person,” Tesla’s Board wrote in a letter to shareholders in August. “So, we also want your help in securing the team and strategy needed to achieve goals that others will perceive as impossible but that we know are possible for Tesla.”
Musk’s net worth is estimated at about $473 billion.
Reining Musk back in
If all goes to plan, Musk’s stake in Tesla will rise from about 13% to nearly 29%—a level of control he’s long sought.
Having voting control in the “mid-20s” percent range would help secure a “strong influence,” but gives shareholders enough control to fire him if he goes “insane,” Musk said during Tesla’s earnings call last month.
“It’s called compensation, but it’s not like I’m going to go spend the money,” Musk added. “It’s just, if we build this robot army, do I have at least a strong influence over that robot army, not current control, but a strong influence? That’s what it comes down to in a nutshell. I don’t feel comfortable wielding that robot army if I don’t have at least a strong influence.”
Tesla’s stock fell as much as 43% between January and March as Musk devoted much of his time to leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Since stepping back, shares have recovered to being up 16% year-to-date.
Many shareholders hope the new incentives will keep Musk focused on Tesla.
Ron Baron, the founder and CEO of Baron Capital, which holds a 0.39% stake in Tesla, said in a post on X that he supported the plan because without Musk, Tesla wouldn’t exist.
“Elon is the ultimate ‘key man’ of key man risk,” Baron wrote. “Without his relentless drive and uncompromising standards, there would be no Tesla.”
From Pope Leo to Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, Musk’s pay package had its haters
Not every Tesla investor was on board with the extravagant deal.
Glass Lewis and ISS, two proxy advisory services, urged Tesla shareholders to vote against the proposal, with the latter group citing “unmitigated concerns” with its magnitude and design. Musk then fired back during Tesla’s October earnings call, calling them “corporate terrorists.”
Meanwhile, Norges Bank Investment Management, the group behind Norway’s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund which holds a 1.14% stake in Tesla, said it voted against the pay package.
“While we appreciate the significant value created under Mr. Musk’s visionary role, we are concerned about the total size of the award, dilution, and lack of mitigation of key person risk — consistent with our views on executive compensation,” the group said in a statement this week.
Pope Leo XIV, though not a Tesla investor, also recently expressed his concern for the message sent by Musk becoming a trillionaire—and the growing divide between the rich and the poor.
“CEOs that 60 years ago might have been making four to six times more than what the workers are receiving, the last figure I saw, it’s 600 times more than what average workers are receiving,” the pontiff told Catholic news site Crux in an interview released in September.
“Yesterday, the news that Elon Musk is going to be the first trillionaire in the world: What does that mean and what’s that about? If that is the only thing that has value anymore, then we’re in big trouble.”
A recent report from Oxfam found that the 10 richest Americans—which include Musk as well as Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, Amazon cofounder Jeff Bezos, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg—gained $69.8 billion over the past year. That’s 833,631 times more than what the typical American household takes home.
While Musk still trails John D. Rockefeller’s $630 billion inflation-adjusted fortune, hitting his new performance targets could make him the richest person in modern history.
